Star Trek (2009)

Star Trek is director J.J. Abrams (Mission: Impossible III) re-envisioning of the classic television and film franchise which, through some very clever writing, maintains its own independence as well as establishing its place within the Star Trek canon. The film opens by cutting back and forth between the origins of James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) from childhood to young adult. Kirk is thrill-seeking, womanizing, and quick to get into fights, while Spock, being half human and half Vulcan, walks a fine line attempting to hide his emotions under the calm demeanor of being logical. There is just enough of an origin story to satisfy a glimpse of their lives before their time on the USS Enterprise, but it’s not much.

There is something a bit strange about Kirk's brief glimpse of childhood: while he is in the stolen car being chased by a Power Rangers villain, he turns on the music player and cranks up the volume to "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys. Assuming that the Beastie Boys are no longer alive - but who knows, strange things happen in this film - this must be from a music player that contains what must be considered classical music in this time. It's only one scene and having music from what should be a time long past doesn't really hurt the film, but it's noticable and a bit distracting. None of the other characters are given any sort of back story beyond a passing mention. It would have been nice to have been given at least one or two more scenes showing how some of these characters met or, in one instance, became romantically involved, but it doesn’t really hurt the film which moves at a pace so fast that it’s hard to care about small details like this.

On board the USS Enterprise is where the story takes off and the action really picks up. After being introduced at a rapid-fire pace to all of the crew members including Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban) and Sulu (John Cho), Kirk and Spock must deal with their own strained relationship as well as with the menace of the Romulan ship led by Nero (Eric Bana), whose motives for destroying the federation planets are both tragic and horribly misguided. The visual effects are pretty incredible, but they don’t dwarf the actors that are in the scenes. Even with all the explosions and creatures, the focus never strays far from the actors; luckily, the acting is good. Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine in particular are both very believable in their roles. In Spock’s face, because of his constant strain in hiding his emotions, every twitch has new meaning in terms of what he is truly thinking. Zachary Quinto gives the character enough subtly to make his lack of emotion fun to watch. Chris Pine is both funny and natural in his portrayal of Kirk, capturing the charisma and leadership qualities of the character. The rest of the cast is good as well, including Eric Bana who is almost unrecognizable as Nero.

This being the first in what will undoubtedly become a new franchise of films, J.J. Abrams wastes no time in making this film a fun, fast-paced action film. There is nothing particularly deep about the story, and it's useless to search for anything philosophical or resembling social commentary. It is what it is: a purely entertaining ride. The action sequences are quite impressive, involving some spectacular animation, and the way the crew interacts with each other while dealing with them make them all the more entertaining to watch. Though there are many lines and references that are meant only for the fans of the original series, newcomers will have no trouble whatsoever following the story. At its core, Star Trek is a Sci-fi action movie which proves that a film can be an action packed visual spectacle, and yet still be a quality movie worth seeing more than once.